MEDICAL TESTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3105, 8 June 1917, Page 6

MEDICAL TESTS

GRIEVANCES, OF RECRUITS EXTENT OF GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSIBILITY The medical examination of recruits jras discussed in some detail yesterday by the A<W, y Bonr( , „ f tho ZMiaud Patriotic. Societies. The question was raised by a remit from the Otago Patfation', , whicll '"'Sed'fhat the ,'n li should accept responsibility s men wllt> l)I ' oke down iu or were rojected after their arrival m the military camps. The Wago Association had been supported by j ar Belief Association !1 'nj. /t "' 1 erll Patriotic Society. ~Jl ® Canterbury S&ciety had resolved i 5 e -Advisory Board should be requested to approach tho Government with a new to obtaining an efficient and uniform medical examination of recruits, so as to avoid the hardship caused by unfit men beinj; taken'into camp and subsequently discharged. It was obvious that numbers of men were passed by the medical boards who were absolutely unfitted for military service, with the result that after /a short, period in camp they were discharged, frequently with their health completely broken. These men became a charge upon the patriotic funds, owing to their inability to resume tlieir civil occupation, and the Canterbury Society thought, therefore, that strong action should be taken in order to secure a uniform and efficient medical test.

The Hon. .T. T. Paul said that the complaints made by the Otago Patriotic Association had not been extreme. Men had been taken from their employment,, put into camp, and subjected there to strains of exposure of a kind thev would never have encountered in civil life. Military law did not allow them to be the judges of their own physical capacity or powers of endurance. When these men broke down, the Dofence Department "had disavowed all responsibility on the ground that the men liad weaknesses when theyentered camp. He admitted that a certain amount :of hardship was inseparable 'from the recruiting system. But the had a right to demand that the medical examination should be made as efficient as possible in the first instance, and that the Government should accept full responsibility when men had been taken into camp. If the men broke downi they "should be placed on the same footing as if their discharge had been. occasioned -by the effect of illness or wounds in the field. <

• The chairman (Mr. L. O. H. Tripp) said there wns no doubt men had been sent into camp who never should have gone there. These men had broken down and become a charge upon the patriotic societies. But the military authorities bad discovered,by experience the disastrous result of a lowering of the medical standard, and the trouble was not continuing. The medical boards wore now being more strict, and an arrangement had been made for the Defence Department to make payments to broken-down recruits if recommended to do 60 by the Pensions Board. Difficulties of a similar kind had been encountered in the United Kingdom, where n scheme for the payment of gratuities to such discharged men had beon evolved, Mr. Hope Gibbons (Wanganui) said the trouble had been made more acute by the adoption of conscription. When the doctors were examining compulsorily enlisted men they tended to disbelieve the recruits' own statements regarding phyeicai weaknesses which might not be apparent at the time. The chairman said that the doctors could not acoept all the statements thai were made to them. He thought that, recruits should be required to answer cer-' tain questions in writing. Then if a man's statement was not accepted and he subsequently brdke down in camp be would have a just claim. Mr. J. Tnrnbull (Southland) mentioned the case of man who was rejected as a volunteer and furnished with two certificates of unfitness. Later he was drawn in the ballot, passed as fit, and sent into camp, where he broke down and was* discharged. The proceeding had cost the man over w£loo. - Mr. V. Larner (Auckland) said that undoubtedly there ho:d been hard cases, but the system had now been improved. The Defence Department had to fight imposition to a certain extent. After some further discussion the board adopted a resolution forwarded by the Otago Association in the following form:—"That reservists who have volunteered or have been called up, and, having passed a first medical examination, ]ia.ve subsequently broken down in their training or have been rejected at a subsequent medical examination, if their bonn-fides are undoubted.-voucht to be provided for by the Government on some fair basis of compensation until their health has been restored and regular employment secured by them."